After the disappointing past campaign, which saw them finishing 4th for the second time in 11 years, PSV hired coach Roger Schmidt, coming off 2 seasons in China. Also joining were a couple of seasoned stars lGotze and Zahavi, whose best years looked already behind them, in order to rekindle their chances as title contenders.
They certainly improved on the previous campaign, achieving a second spot and a Champions League ticket, despite being plagued by injuries and Covid outbreaks all over the season. But the gap from Ajax, the Dutch champions, was actually increased as they ended up 16 points away from the Amsterdam side, thus never representing a serious threat for the champions. Their Europa League and KNVB Cup campaigns also ended way too soon.
While they came out unscathed from the 2 clashes against Ajax, drawing on both occasions, they lost too many points here and there, being defeated twice by 3rd-placed AZ or collecting just one draw from the two clashes against 5th-placed Feyenoord or 2 draws against 12th-placed Heerenveen.
Although they were certainly hard to beat, they lost only 4, and dominated games at times, PSV had often problems killing matches off and would concede 1 goal too many especially when travelling.
Between weeks 20 and 27 PSV won only 3 games and there were rumours regarding Schmidt’s dismissal, but the coach was allowed to continue at the helm and they obtained 5 wins and 2 draws from the remaining 7 games.
22-year-old Malen broke through with 19 goals scored and 8 assists served, but goals and assists also came from Zahavi (11/3), Madueke (7/6), who made the best out of the time he was given, but also left-back Max (5/8). Gotze was particularly missed with injuries keeping him out too often.
PSV set up the basis for a flourishing future but will have to improve defensively and increase depth in their squad. A depth which was missed in crucial moments of the season.
